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Cheryl Iverson

In this age of electronic data dissemination and retrieval, in which abstracts are indexed and freely available, a well-written abstract is important in directing readers to articles of potential clinical and research interest and also for discoverability via online searching. The abstract of a research report summarizes the main points of an article: (1) the study objective or importance, (2) the study design and methods, (3) the primary results, and (4) the principal conclusions. Some journals may include funding at the end of the abstract or in the Methods section; others, like the JAMA Network journals, include this information in the Acknowledgment section (...

Cheryl Iverson

The JAMA Network journals require that for all manuscripts that report the results of clinical trials, the trial must be registered at an appropriate online public registry that is owned by a not-for-profit entity, is publicly accessible, and requires the minimum registration data set as described by the ICMJE....

Cheryl Iverson

A few specific guidelines to consider in preparing a structured or an unstructured abstract follow. Above all, keep in mind that the abstract is meant to stand alone, independent of the main manuscript.
■ Consult the journal’s instructions for authors.
■ Use the journal’s specific headings when preparing a structured abstract....

Cheryl Iverson

For reports of original research, systematic reviews, and clinical reviews, structured abstracts (abstracts that use section heads) are recommended. Specific advice taken from JAMA’s Instructions for Authors,8 adapted from Haynes et al,9 is given here. Note that Design, Setting, and Patients or Other Participants subsections may be combined, depending on the description. If no intervention was performed, that heading may be omitted. Many journals limit the number of words in abstracts; the JAMA Network journals, for example, allow 350 words for reports of original research and for systematic reviews....

Cheryl Iverson

Ways to make the structured abstract even more informative continue to evolve. Among these is the inclusion of a small table in the Results subsection in selected abstracts. This approach debuted in the February 6, 2013, issue of JAMA.
10 Other journals have also begun experimenting with inclusion of tables or figures in abstracts (graphical abstracts)....

Cheryl Iverson

For other major manuscripts, include an unstructured abstract (a paragraph without headings) of no more than 200 words that summarizes the objective, main points, and conclusions of the article. Abstracts are not required for opinion pieces, letters, and special features, such as news articles, although many journals include short 1-sentence précis summarizing these articles. Consult the journal’s instructions for authors for special requirements in individual publications....